G A R Y A U E R B A C H
Platinum Fine Art Photographer
Twelve years ago, after a career changing injury, I turned my full attention to photography. I was disillusioned to find that much of my earlier work from 25 years ago was beginning to show signs of deterioration. I did not want to spend my time working in a photographic art form with materials that caused the print to self-destruct. Since the 1850's it has been well documented that silver-based photographic methods have a lack of long-term image permanence.
Living in Tucson, I was fortunate to utilize the world renown resources from the University of Arizona's Center for Creative Photography. I researched how one could make a permanent photograph. There was the cyanotype, an iron process; the carbon print, using graphite; and the platinum print, using platinum metals. Viewing examples of each, I was drawn to the platinotype with its warm tonal scale, and its sharp as a tack image, because it requires a negative the same size as the image. The platinotype image is softened because it is printed on watercolor paper. Since the emulsion is hand-coated, there is an organic feeling about completing the print to the finished product.
In looking at early photographic images, I was drawn to three photographers in particular: Eduard Steichen, Edward Curtis and Alfred Steiglitz. All produced portraits of people that captured a soul within them for me.
I taught myself how to print, using 6 x 6 cm negatives that I had from my many years of working with a Hasselblad. It was terrific, no darkrooms were necessary, and no more chemical smells. Printing outside in the sun, I felt like a pioneer photographer. I knew then that I loved the process - and the look. But my negatives were small, and so were my prints.
I attempted to work with negatives that were enlarged, but found that I could not get the look of the images printed from larger formats. So I began the process of moving up in negative size. That worked well because there was a slight learning curve to hand-coating larger images, 4x5, 5x7 and 8x10. Ultimately, I found a used Wisner 11x14 technical field camera and with that, I felt that I found my niche.
Portraiture and architecture is my specialty -- large format platinotypes. Photographic images that are made to last 500 to a thousand years
In the process, I hope to educate a public that knows very little about the platinotype and the platinum photograph.
Exhibitions:
1992 State Photographic Exhibition Hall; Moscow, Russia
1994 Euro-Photo; Geneva, Switzerland
1995 Hacienda Del Sol Resort; Tucson, AZ
1996 Hamilton Fine Art Gallery; Bisbee, AZ
1997 The Screening Room; Tucson, AZ
1998 Tucson Museum of Art; Tucson, AZ
2000 Tucson Museum of Art
2000 Center for Creative Photography; Tucson, AZ
2000 Pima University; Tucson, AZ
2000 El Presidio Gallery; Tucson, AZ
2001 PH7 Gallery; Brussels, Belgium
2002 Focale Photographie, Nyon Switzerland
2002-2003 Amerind Foundation Museum and Art Gallery
In the Individual Collections of:
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Richard Dean Anderson
James Carville
Mr. and Mrs Walter Cronkite
Shelley Fabares
Charles Correll
In the Museum Collections of:
Library of Congress
Smithsonian
U. of Maryland/Baltimore
Tucson Museum of Art
U. of Arizona Special Collections
Ville de Geneve Musee de Ethnographie
San Xavier del Bac Museum
Pima Air Museum
Musee de la Photographie, Charleroi, Belgium
Harvard Astrophysical Laboratories
Biblioteque Nationale de France
Fine Art photography Book Images of Their Own by Gary Auerback
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